The Silence | ✔️

17. T

Car horns blared, people, images everything that passed me became abstract as I ran through the streets with a pounding heart. I hadn't stopped once. I didn't stop when Aiden chased me up the staircase. I didn't stop when I slammed the door shut on him and ran for the elevator.

The fact that he could phone ahead to Hunapo and have me cornered was something that I had been expecting. So I got off the elevator at the floor below and took the stairwell. Flip flops were a pain to run in. But if I did anything well, it was run. For that brief pause that I was in the elevator, I asked Maddie for her address.

As soon as I knew where she lived, I threw the phone off the staircase and continued running until I was out on the streets. People were watching me, staring and cursing when I passed them with a shove in the shoulder. It wasn't intentional. But I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe. My mind just kept conjuring the image of that man being shot. His eyes, his terrified eyes. They were locked on mine when the life left his body and I couldn't forget it. The flashbacks were nauseating.

I wasn't sure how long I ran for. But I arrived at Maddie's apartment building and again, took the stairwell. I didn't want to be trapped in a small space. Her apartment door said 333 and I began pounding on it, the chipped paint becoming worse as I basically clawed at it.

My head whipped from side to side, watching the corridor with fear that he would appear. That gun in his hand, the boredom in his expression, like taking a life was as dull as taking out the trash.

The door swung open and Maddie appeared in her sweats. Her red hair was pulled up and she stared at me in confusion as I practically collapsed into her arms from exhaustion.

"Arian, wha—"

"Aiden," I gasped, my voice was so hoarse from being out of breath. "You have to sta— stay away from him. Don't let him in— don't be alone with— he's danger—"

"Arian, honey, breathe—"

"He killed someone," I cried and gripped her forearms. Her eyes widened and she peered over at Cameron who mirrored her startled glance. "He— he sh— he shot some— I'm going to be sick—"

"Oh shït," Maddie wrapped her arm around my waist and snatched a bowl from beside her door. It was filled with mail and keys but she carelessly tipped it on to the floor, shoving it at me as I violently heaved up the contents of our tortellini.

Cameron was beside me then, helping to keep me upright as Maddie rubbed my back. I would have been humiliated but I was in shock, panicking and fearing someone that I had spent so much time with. . . alone.

When I was done losing my guts, Cameron took the bowl and left. Maddie still held me against her and rubbed my back while she called for Cameron to fetch her a paper bag. "You need to breath," she said with a calm voice. "You're going to pass out if you don't regulate your breathing. In and out honey. In and out. Slow."

I tried to do what she said but it was hard. The vivid images wouldn't let me be. My skin crawled. Cameron returned with a paper bag and Maddie held it up. "Breath in to this. Slow! I'd let you sit down but I think you've wet yourself honey."

"Of course I did!" I sobbed. "I was busting when I saw— it gave me a frigh— it was an accident."

"Don't be embarrassed," she said with a soothing voice and began leading me up the corridor. Cameron kept behind as Maddie pushed open a door that lead to a small bathroom. A shower over bathtub was tucked in the corner and a white curtain hung from the rail above it. "Breathe into that and sit here. We'll get you cleaned up."

She sat me on a little stool beside the basin and I did what she said, focusing on breathing into the paper bag so that I could rid the stars that were dancing in front of me. Each time that I closed my eyes, I saw it again. It was right there, almost magnified. It was worse. And it continued to get worse. The blood, the gunshot. The way that the mans body just. . . slumped.